Ahead of Tuesday's game against the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils rookie Arseny Gritsyuk skated after missing time with an undisclosed injury.
Gritsyuk missed three games, and head coach Sheldon Keefe gave an update on the rookie winger.
"He seems like he’s close. They’re pretty encouraged. Grits himself was encouraged," Keefe said to NJD.tv. "He got out on the ice a few days ago and wasn’t expecting to do much but felt good. He came off the ice having done a lot more than they had planned on allowing him to do because of how he felt. That’s positive. He’s probably closer to a return than we thought earlier. We’ll take our time with it. We’ll move him from week to week, to day to day at this point."
The Devils have eight games left in the season and are 38-34-2. Gritsyuk has 31 points in 66 games as a rookie.
Keefe shared how his absence would impact Tuesday’s lineup.
"Since Gritsyuk has gone down, we’ve had some tough nights from our bottom-6 quite honestly. We need to change that mix," Keefe said. "I don’t want to change the other two lines that have been rolling pretty good.”
The Devils lost to the Rangers on Tuesday, 4-1.
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